Generation West Virginia

New Groups Bring Fresh Ideas, Enthusiasm to Address Old Problems in State

by Ann Ali
The State Journal
November 15, 2007

A young professional looking across West Virginia's landscape might not perceive much company, but a group of like-minded young adults has banded together to hone in on the reasons why so many of their peers leave the state and why they have stayed.

Generation West Virginia, the young professionals' movement, began as a handful of separate regional organizations.

"It all begins and ends with the concern of the brain drain in West Virginia and losing young talent," said Paul Daugherty, an architect of one of the first organizations, Young Emerging Leaders of the Mid-Ohio Valley in Parkersburg, where he still is co-chairman, and now is a member of Generation Morgantown.

"In these six regions of West Virginia, the different groups of young leaders were interested in how do we retain, attract and advance young talent within the state...so as each group got started, we each, through our own professional networks, began connecting the dots."

And the vanguard of the young professionals' movement looks at West Virginia as a place to build up, not tear down. They even see the moniker "young professionals" in the broadest sense, not bound by stereotypes of lawyers and accountants. They welcome those who have careers in the arts, health care, education, entertainment and hospitality.

Getting Started

Daugherty said he and Mindi Line in Parkersburg a few years ago recognized a large generational gap among the residents there. They began thinking of how to build opportunities for people starting out in their careers to become connected to the community to build their careers. He said he and Line researched young professionals' groups in other parts of the country, and he thought the Mid-Ohio Valley needed something similar.

At nearly the same time in Huntington, unaware of Daugherty in Parkersburg, Chris Slaughter began rallying young professionals in the area to create resources for one another as the Young Professionals' Committee of the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce. Joe Randolph, the committee's current chairman, said the organization has built a brand in the three years since its inception and has about 162 members.

Shortly after the first two groups started, Ashley Hardesty in Morgantown thought there had to be more to the city than students and established professionals.

Generation Charleston then began as part of the Charleston Area Alliance, with Erica Mani spearheading the effort. Hardesty told Mani at a statewide Bowles, Rice, McDavid Graff and Love retreat that she'd been at it for a few months, so she'd be happy to help. Then the Bowles Rice connection helped Kristin West get started in Martinsburg, too.

And most recently, OVConnect began in Wheeling after a push from Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce President Terry Sterling.

Organizational Roots

Sterling said he thought a networking group of the area's young professionals would be very beneficial, and OVConnect's rapid growth -- from eight people at the initial meeting a few months ago to about 200 people on the current mailing list -- demonstrates the need for such an organization that pools together a network the area had been trying to tap into for some time.

"I'm very proud of them," he said. "They've really embraced this concept. Our interest here at the Chamber was to get it started and hand it off. I think they can serve as a valuable resource here in the Ohio Valley."

'Retain, Attract & Advance Young Talent'

Each group has its own focus. Wheeling and Martinsburg want to build their brands. Charleston and Morgantown want to gain more structure. But the overarching mission for Generation West Virginia includes outreach to inspire other regional groups, spur economic development, influence legislative and policy issues, provide statewide marketing and establish a young leadership conference.

The group wants to create best practices to help other regional groups that may begin. When it comes to economic development, Generation West Virginia wants to share its viewpoints and concerns for things such as quality of life. Generation West Virginia doesn't want to back any political candidates but rather focus on legislative and policy issues important to the young professional, which ties into statewide marketing for West Virginia as a destination for young leaders and families.

And the groups already recognize they have a responsibility to not only learn from established leaders and step up themselves but also hand it down to even later generations.

"One thing we want to share is that in West Virginia you can build a career as well as be successful at a young age, and part of our role is going to be to tell other people," Daugherty said. "We know that it's going to take a number of years to achieve our goal, but, in essence, part of it is building partnerships and the resources and really pulling people together."

Daugherty said according to West Virginia's 2000 census, more than 650,000 West Virginians fall into the 18-44 bracket, and while most of the groups focus on the 21-45 age bracket, that many people connected to their local communities would have a huge effect.

This group recognizes that it's not about each region on its own. Members have said that what advances one area in turn advances the entire state, and that's their push.

"Most of the existing leaders, whether it's business, civic or education, they're looking at where will the next generation of leadership come from," he said. "We don't want to have this issue of the brain drain going on in our 50s and 60s when we're in the board rooms making other decisions."

Huntington's current chairman, Joe Randolph, said he once heard from West Virginia Chancellor of Higher Education Brian Noland that among 100 West Virginia high school students, roughly 60 would graduate and 30 would go to college. Of the 30 in college, only three will stay in the state. Randolph said if that's true, the outreach has to start even earlier.

The groups' social aspect of simply finding like-minded individuals plays a big part in quality of life.

Justin Seibert of OVConnect said when he recently moved back to his native Wheeling to start his online marketing business, his wife wanted ways to meet people and become a part of the community. They established a deadline to move if they weren't happy within a few years.

Generation Charleston Chairman Matt Kingery moved to the capital city from Huntington. After seeing the successful YPC in Huntington, he said he first looked for a similar movement in Charleston before he moved.

"I said I don't want to be the guy who just works all the time; I do want to be connected," Kingery said. "I said if there's something like this group, I definitely want to get keyed into it.

"We don't want to be just a social organization, but we can use that as a tool to capture that energy."

Outside Opinions

Each regional organization is connected to its local chamber of commerce, and it would be easy for the "old guard" to be threatened by these "young bucks." But the reception has been warm as the groups take their place under the umbrella of Generation West Virginia and their affiliations with chambers of commerce.

"I am active with a lot of groups that are just ecstatic with this," Heywood said. "One of the things I see in a lot of these business and trade organizations I participate in ... is a sense that people are always going, and it's always the same people sitting around the table.

"There's plenty of work to go around, and the existing organizations I think uniformly, the ones that I'm involved in, have been really just delighted with the energy and the focus and the enthusiasm."

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